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Tebow scores a 22 on the Wonderlic, below average for an NFL starting QB

Tim Tebow is certainly no dummy, having won the National Football Foundation’s “Academic Heisman,” otherwise known as the William V. Campbell Trophy, in 2009 for success on the field, in the classroom and community leadership.

Tebow graduated Florida with a 3.66 GPA as a Family, Youth and Community Services major, and he is a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and a two-time First Team Academic All-American.

But when it comes to quick thinking in a pressurized situation, Tebow performed slightly below average when compared to his peers. According to Edgar Thompson, the Post’s Miami Dolphins writer, Tebow scored a 22 on his Wonderlic test at the NFL Combine two weekends ago.

The 12-minute, 50-question test assesses a person’s learning and problem-solving abilities, and while Tebow’s score of 22 is just fine for the NFL, it is a little low for starting quarterbacks.

The average score for all quarterbacks is 24, but the average for 30 NFL starting quarterbacks — Matt Cassel’s and Matt Moore’s could not be found — is a 28.5. Taking it a step further, the average Wonderlic score of the last seven Super Bowl winners is 30.1.

That’s not to say that a Wonderlic score directly relates to success as an NFL quarterback. Quarterbacks with high scores (Ryan Fitzpatrick 48, Alex Smith 40, Matt Leinart 35) have struggled in the league, while quarterbacks with modest scores (Donovan McNabb 14, David Garrard 14, Vince Young 15) have performed well.

Tebow also scored slightly lower than the other quarterbacks in this draft class — Sam Bradford leads the way with 36, followed by Colt McCoy at 25 and Jimmy Clausen at 23, according to Thompson.

Here is a list of the Wonderlic scores of the starting quarterbacks in the NFL (plus Tebow):